i think Vraska the Unseen is a must. people are playing a good amount of enchantments and artifacts, the last think you want is THEM to have a whip out too. plus, biggest +1 deterrent on a planes walker, haha.

Yeah, for sure! Thanks for the comment Dreno33! I will add it as soon as I can trade for one

Technically, Shadowborn Demon destroys creatures, not permanents.

What do you use Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts for? 4 guaranteed life and damage? I just feel that for the same mana cost, Lord of the Void is a better option and has a stronger effect. Or, since you apparently have 61 cards, just cut her if that bugs you.

@ GoldGhost012 I keep getting Ashen Rider and Shadowborn Demon confused, shadowborn demon is great because you can sack it after it hits the battlefield the next turn and whip it out again, or rescue it then re-sack it, then whip it for 3 uses if you wanted.

Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts is fun late game to deal with meddlesome creatures that have protection of some sort or hexproof, because as soon as they deal damage to me it destroys that creature. Sure, I have to take some combat damage, but it gets the job done, and it can block anything. Like the pesky Desecration Demon that is now a 10/10. See what I mean?

But I have a Lord of the Void in the sideboard when Teysa is irrelevant.

actaully, Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts can't block a Desecration Demon , ShadowLand. no flying :D

You are 100% right Dreno33, and I am an idiot. Against same color matchups that utilize things of that nature, she will go in the board and probably be replaced with Ashen Rider , which may take her place permanently.

Looks pretty good! I like Gray Merchant a lot. This is my reanimator deck

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ghostride-the-whip-1/

Thanks DrFunk27! If you just use the link tag like you are linking a user for your deck name, like so [ [ ghostride-the-whip-1 ] ] but without the spaces, that's how it makes it clickable, checking out Ghostride the Whip now!

why the lanturn and specters... they dont seem like they fit the idea of the deck.. and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx should deffinately be in here due to your high devotion to black.. id lose the specters and the lanturn for removal and another vraska... then add 3 shrines at least... maybe 4 if you can squeeze it

@ RespawnPointGaming, the Specters pretty much win games. They are 3 devotion for my gray merchants, they are early game flyers, and they have the potential for netting me card advantage as a bonus. The lanterns were actually in the deck before the Specters were, they help in those tight situations when you screw on that one mana you need, and it works great. As far as the nykthos go, I am going to use 2 of them, and actually just opened one the other day, and with them being legendary lands, I don't want to run 3-4, because they become a dead draw at that point. I am thinking of adding 2 Rogue's Passage though, as I have had good luck with that before. And I am thinking of adding Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Liliana of the Dark Realms , but I may go with a 2nd vraska instead of garruk eventually, good suggestions!

Why Garruk? You can't use one of his abilities. Elvish Mystics in the side seems like a waste, if you want mana ramp you main it. I just can't think of why you'd bring them in. It seems like this deck is a hybrid of the RG Monsters decks roaming around recently and the MonoBlack Devo deck that is remarkably good.

@ AteTheIsm, I am actually going to be ridding this deck of garruk, and instead running 2x Vraska the Unseen , 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion and 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms , and I might even just not do the Elspeth and go with 2/2 of the others, I haven't really gotten a feel for how Elspeth will perform yet.

The Mystics are in the side for the games when I need the extra push to make it slightly more aggressive, but I agree. The deck functions well enough without them that bringing them into it almost throws it off. But it's funny to me that you cite two decks I have never even heard of that this could be hybrids of. Do you have the decklists for those? I think it would be fun to have a look at them!

Elspeth, Sun's Champion would work well I feel. so i think go with it. I mean hell, just -3 her and let your obzdaddy die with their big dumb crap, the whip that shit back into action.

but honestly, i just love the massive token shitter.

Considering the follow:

• Every card in your deck is deadly.

• You don't need combos to win.

• You have many good 4 drops.

Read the Bones > Diabolic Tutor

You need no tutorage, and thats awesome.

Btw, Shadowborn Demon only work with his followers. Without the little guys, you just paid 5 manas for a removal with a HUGE drawback. Hero's Downfall cost 3, and kill PW. The sacrifice drawback is too intense if you're not prepared for it. You might have to sacrifice important things... like the demon you just paid 5 manas for. All your 5-or-less mana creatures are valuable, you have no cannon fooders. Even if you Whip him back to life later (or discard him with Lotleth Troll ), killing something and attacking... was the chance of that happen worth the slot you took? Better safe than sorry.

jsansoldo all good points, but if I was going to remove the tutor it would be for something way better than read the bones. The tutor is my way to get anything in the deck I want, instead of hoping to draw into my answer before its too late. It allows me to swap out any 1 card in my SB and have it instantly effect game play. Before I added tutor, I was running

-4 Diabolic Tutor
+1 Sylvan Caryatid
+2 Whip of Erebos
+1 Chromatic Lantern

do those cards seem as though I should have kept them instead. I haven't gotten a chance to play test with the tutors in yet

also, good advice with the Shadowborn Demon , but he is cheaper than Ashen Rider and is only not good when playing mirror matches. I'd like to hear more from you though, you seem to grasp that the whip is the focus here.

Just found out something. Dunno If you know this already, but if you revive Obzedat with Whip of Erebos, the rulling allow you to revive him for real. No strings attached. His exile effect can take place before the Whip effect, making him come back in the next upkeep normally.

Its the sickest combo ever. You discard Obzedat with Troll, and revive him for 4 mana. Insane shit. Will do a deck with this combo myself!

@ jsansoldo - AEtherling does the same thing if you can build a decent build with that in there. Also, you didn't answer any of the questions posed to you. Lol.

Since you were discussing this deck in that other thread about gods, I just did a quick playtest against my esper control deck Heisenberg. Basically a T3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver exiled your own Blood Baron of Vizkopa and stole it T4, which you had no way of dealing with. He just beat you down while counter magic and my spot removal controlled the board until it was game. You might want to consider Devour Flesh for Pro black threats. Hope this helps.

or Glare of Heresy from the sideboard...

I got carried away with excitement for that little combo, sorry.

My problem with Diabolic Tutor is the cost. The older incarnations of DT, like Demonic Tutor , had low mana costs. Despite their drawbacks, it made all the difference. 9/10 times, Diabolic Tutor means you lose a turn. 4 is a great cost, and most of the times it'll be your last spell that turn. Ok, now you have the right card in hand, but you sacrificed a turn for it. Was it worth it?

DT is not a Green Sun's Zenith , Birthing Pod or Goblin Matron . Matron is a Goblin creature herself. Zenith and Pod drop the thing straight on the battlefield. They are the good tutors you can use without thinking twice.

When using cards like DT main-deck, you must ask yourself: "I absolutely need that exact card every time to win? I'm willing to lose a turn for it?"

If the answer is "No", or "Maybe", its not reason enough. A well build decklist have probability in her side - you know what cards you have, the odds of pulling X and Y. You dont need all the answer available the moment you want them - sacrificing your turn the process - but the right bombshell coming in a steady flow, spells spread in a defined window of rounds to come. The topdeck is not exactly a random thing. With good shuffle, possibility works quite well to predict your draw chances. And - as I mentioned before - your deck is full of deadly babies.

What could be better than a perfect tutor to find what you need the moment you need? JUST DRAW DE THING ALREADY.

Better, draw 2 things.

Thats why Read the Bones is so powerful. Its a 2 draw card that allow you to scry beforehand, filtering the stuff you dont need. If your deck is well build, and your topdeck predictable, draw 2 cards + scry at cost 3 is much better than a cost 4 tutor.

Its tempting to have DT to solve all the problems. Yeah, you can search for that answer you needed. You can have only one copie of any solution on the sideboard. But you are sacrificing 4 slots main deck for it. And sacrifice offense for defense is the mentality of Control. Are you planning on controlling the game with those 7 instants there... or planning on killing them dead with your fat creatures beating non-stop?

In any non-Control deck you just have to be good enough with what you have, and draw it all consistently to kill them before they kill you.

@ Apoptosis, Glare of Heresy would do nothing against Blood Baron of Vizkopa he is pro white correct??

@ Apoptosis i am generally going to try to utilize my Hero's Downfall against things like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver , assuming I can hit them at the right time. That game I would have been screwed tho. LoL. But yes, good advice with the Devour Flesh , I have also considered Corrupt

@ jsansoldo - good points, and usually the 1 turn really isn't enough to kill me, but I do see where you are coming from and it's a good point. But I already have card draw through Underworld Connections which nets me devotion, I would however probably just throw back in 2 more whips, 1 more Chromatic and an Erebos, God of the Dead or a Liliana of the Dark Realms perhaps.

Oops forgot pro white.

Perhaps Jarad's Orders instead of Diabolic Tutor ?

It may only search for creatures but it'll also give you a reanimation target.

I run a similar deck, but mine isnt based around devotion. Mines more based around the interaction between the Whip and Obzedat.

I personally think Obzedat's Aid is better than Rescue from the underworld. even though you get one more etb trigger from rescue, the only real etb creature that you have is gray merchant. Obzedats aid allows you to get back planeswalkers, or even destroyed whips. I run Commune with the Gods to Fuel the whip and potentially grab a whip. If lets say Elspeth, Sun's Champion Gets milled, Its not a total loss, because we have Aid.

Im going to assume your deck has problems vs any of the mono colored blue or red decks, mostly because you are missing a 1 drop, and only have 8 2 drops. Im going to guess, your ideal first two turns are "Temple of Silence , pass. Forest Sylvan Caryatid pass" Which granted, caryatid is great vs red, but you aren't always going to have them, and red does have answers to it. Personally, id change your deck around to also include Elvish Mystic and Fleecemane Lion . They can put early game pressure on, and in the case of elvish mystic, allow you to drop big things faster. You have no idea how much Fleecemane does. Early game vs midrange, you get to do a bunch of damage, and when they finally find their answer, you can monstrous it in response to probably save it.

Take a look at my list, ive done fairly well with it. Junk Reanimator *1st at gameday*

So after seeing how it performed in the local meta, it went 2-2-1,
It lost to an esper control deck, I was at 38 life when he ultimated jace to mill me for 20, that game went 47 minutes. (in hindsight I should have just conceded like 10 mins in and started over)
It lost to a BUG deck that the first game went 25 minutes and we were locked with neither of us giving up ground, so rather than make the same mistake as the first game, I conceded and we went to game 2, which my deck played well, but just didn't have enough answers.
It tied a RB deck that played Spellheart Chimera and a bunch of controlley stuff. But we went to time and I had him stuck at 3 life and couldn't get it done in time.
It won it's mirror match against golgari 2-1 and weathered the stom, the games went to time, but I came out on top by overwhelming the field turn 3 after hitting in with some heavy removal.
It also won against a boros deck 2-1 as well, my sidebord helped with having the pro-white, and the nightveil specter and chromatic lanterns won me the game pretty much by allowing me to use his burn and creatures against him. It was pretty sweet.

So anyways, I have decided that I don't need the Sylvan Caryatid s, they just didn't do enough to justify the 2 drop slot that they were taking up. In most cases, I had way too much mana instead of not enough.
Next on the chopping block was Rescue from the Underworld , and it was almost always a dead draw, and not what I wanted to see at all. And when I am disappointed to draw a card, it's time for that card to hit the chopping block.
Even though I never really had trouble drawing into the Lotleth Troll , I still think that having 3 of them in this deck is going to be plenty, there's nothing I hate more than drawing more than 1 of a card that I don't want to see again. I think this will especially be okay if I play some dredge.
I managed to pick up another Hero's Downfall , and it is so powerful in this format I feel like it needs to be a 4-of. Those planeswalkers can be exceptionally pesky.
Also I feel like the Gray Merchant of Asphodel is very conditional, so I am going to drop it down to 2 for now, I think that adding dredge to this deck, I will see more than enough of him in the graveyard to make it worth my while.

Things that I am thinking about adding:
1-2 Grisly Salvage - helps with finding land and creatures
2-3 Commune with the Gods - finding creatures or whips
2 Nighthowler - no more, no less - with the dredge it could be really good to bestow
2 High Priest of Penance - is basically a removal spell in and of itself. I can play it and target it myself if need be to destroy a permanent.
1-3 Thoughtseize - I really think that in the control matchups this could be really good to help me stay relevant by removing their spells that are going to stop me from establishing board state or swinging in for the kill.

So that's pretty much what I need help with at this point. Also looking for suggestions on other things to change . . .